Thursday, February 22, 2007

Hermann Nitsch's Orgiastic Performances (late 1960's). Nitsch's orgiastic performances, what he called 'total work of art' or Gesamtkunstwerk, looked a bit like Alan Kaprow's more secular happenings (in New York in the early 1960's). According to Nitsch, "In the fifties the most diverse artists from all over the world were confronted with the insufficiency of their respective media. They proceeded to ‘Aktionen’ and happenings with real events, that may be tasted, smelt, seen, heard and touched. This was the breakthrough to reality." Nitsch's endeavour to initiate this ritual of rituals must be seen against the broader background of the idea that art is the successor of religion. To phrase it in his own words: "To me, art is a kind of priesthood, since traditional religions have lost their spell." In a manifesto he says of the existential-sacral painting: "We strive for a consequent sacralisation of art and for a thorough spiritualization of existence whereby man becomes the priest of Being." In the end, the reality was slightly different; a handful of actors performing the 'orgiastic ecstasy,' gaped at by a handful of passive spectators, drinking, discussing, laughing and smoking…